I am sure you are wondering what two far-away countries have in common with each other and Valentine's Day. Perhaps the regular readers of this blog (if there are any) already know the answer because they can understand how I think. For all the others, keep reading until it becomes apparent to you that, indeed, Valentine's Day, Saudi Arabia and the Philippines do have something in common.

I could try to give you a hint but it would have helped if you were a regular visitor of the BBC web site [1]. Anyhow, I am sure that just by looking at the tags of this story you could get the basis of the story. It is about consumerism, religion and health. If you are still wondering then just keep reading. I hope that it will become clear to you.

So here it comes. I guess I will start from the most obvious thing that even if you are an atheist living in exile you must know about it. Today it is Valentine's Day. I guess the Catholics celebrate some kind of saint. I do not know and frankly I do not care. I was baptized as an Orthodox and that guy was not a saint for the Orthodox Church. In any case, from a young age I learned in school that the Catholics were all wrong and bad since they split from the 'true' church of Jesus. Yes right, whatever.

Anyway, I should not deviate from my main story. My problem with Valentine's Day is how it is being used today. It is supposed to be a special day for people in love. I think it is for stupid people who think they are in love (I just gave you a clue). Why the FAK would you need a special day to show and prove your love to your other half? If you care about somebody, you show it every day with every action. Overpriced flowers are incapable of such. So, I guess you show love and respect only a day of the year and the rest you simply do not give a flying FAK but because you observe the official day of love with some materialistic gift, you are an ok partner.

Perhaps you could say that Valentine's Day is another special day just like a birthday. Perhaps it is an occasion to have fun. Well, that would have been fine and great if it were not for several issues. First of all, you have a minority of stupid girls who insist upon doing something special on this superficial day (oops, sorry, I meant to say SPECIAL DAY). Do not get annoyed if in a month from today, your man asks you to observe the Steak and BJ day. It is only natural. There is no such thing as a free lunch, after all.

As a result of all this, the consumerism is beyond belief. Everything is over-inflated price wise. A simple rose would cost double to triple of the original price. Having a nice meal into a restaurant will be simple extortion. Why the fak is that? Did, all of a sudden, the price of vegetables increase? Why do people have to be so faking stupid? Don't they see that this is nothing but a well thought coup by shops?

Sorry, people, but I have always refused to take part into this charade. Luckily, most of my exs also shared my beliefs about the stupidity of the day. I personally prefer to stay indoors and have a typical quality time with my partner (if I have one at the time) or my doll (if I don't). So, I guess you know what I am doing later....

But at least, even when people are stupid, they have the choice to act out their stupidity. At the end of the day, if they want to pay four times as much for a piece of meat, let them do it. This is the essence of freedom (second clue of the day). Stupid and ignorant people have the same rights as those who would think twice. At least, they will have the chance to see the light and repent. After all it is nothing too dangerous. You buy a few roses, some sweets, a nice dinner followed by some good sex.

Unfortunately, this is not how everybody would see it. Apparently, buying Valentine's roses is a big offense in Saudi Arabia. It sounds too bizarre, I know, but have a look at this BBC story [2]. It seems that the Saudis are banning the sale of Valentine's gifts including roses. Valentine's Day is un-Islamic. It also promotes relations between men and women outside of wedlock. Perhaps the lack of relations between men and women in that country can explain all those Google searches for the words 'FAK' originating from Saudi Arabia that we are getting. (Don't worry, Iran is worse.) How do I know? Well, as you can see, our site title contains the word 'FAK' and our Frequently Asked Kuestions page [3] seems to be very popular. Need I say any more? It seems that the more puritanical a society is, the more twisted it becomes. I would not even comment on some other searches from those countries containing the word 'FAK'. They are too perverted and involve living creatures that are NOT human or even worse, humans of very young age. Need I say more to catch my drift?

Anyway, I bet that asking for condoms (last clue) in Saudi Arabia during Valentine's Day may be punishable by death or, if you are lucky, punishable by cutting your penis but then again, men don't seem to suffer for acting out sexual urges. In Saudi Arabia, the women are blamed for tempting the men. Rape victims bare the brunt of the responsibility. It's their fault they were raped because they tempted the man simply for being a female. After all, Saudi law doesn't expect men to exhibit restraint but rather will simply blame the women and punish them accordingly in the faked up way Saudi Arabia punishes women for the tragic mistake of being born female. Needless to say that a woman will not even think to ask for a condom there. These latex things are the Devil's invention and they should not be used since preventing conception via your holy God-given semen is an offence against God. But wait a second, do I still talk about Saudi Arabia? Perhaps I do, or perhaps I talk about the Philippines.

We have finally arrived at the last part of this story and in order to comprehend the connection you need to read this BBC story [4]. Apparently, contraception is almost impossible to get in the Philippines because it is primarily a strict Catholic country and preventing conception is a big no-no for the Catholics. Abortion's no good; contraception is no good. Fak like rabbits and make babies galore whether or not you can afford them or want them. But then again, it's a SIN to NOT want a baby because remember, a child is a gift from God as per those annoying fakin bumper stickers. NO family planning in the Philippines. Abortion is banned and President Gloria Arroyo openly backs the Church's anti-contraception stance. So, not only women do not have rights over their own bodies but they cannot even get contraception.

Know what else is faked up? They even make it difficult for sex workers to get condoms. Unprotected sex between prostitutes and their 'clients' - very nice. Let's spread disease in the name of God, shall we? I know. They're going to say: the sex industry is a sin and evil. Even though we all wish we could make that atrocity disappear, we all know this is a fact of life just like teenagers having sex. We all wish it wouldn't happen but it does. It is reality. Sex trade is reality; therefore why wouldn't you want to AT LEAST prevent disease from spreading by making condoms available and encouraging usage rather than banning it? What faking sense does that make? But then again, we never said religion made any sense, did we?

So, it seems that both Saudi Arabia and the Philippines are typical cases of religion trying to control the masses and influence their everyday lives. Human rights are grossly violated, yet nobody takes a stance against this bigotry. Incidentally, both countries happen to be allies of the ol' US of A. So in the name of oil and imperialism, democracy and human dignity are not existent. (That is interesting because on the same day that his story is written, George W gave an interview to the BBC [5] and he talked about freedom and human dignity being primary concerns of the US of A). Thank you USA for your double standards. But what do you expect from an administration which condones water boarding (for aliens, of course). I guess foreign nationals do not have the same human rights as Americans. Did I mention double standards again?

So, ladies and gentlemen, I know this is a bizarre way to write about Valentine's Day. Bringing consumerism, human stupidity and religious bigotry in one single story, can be considered goofy and my old creative writing teacher would have failed me. But then again I was never good in creative writing because even then I had to follow rules in order to get good marks. As you have probably realized by now, I do not like imposed rules unless they make sense to me. For the same reason, I will continue to be creative in my own way and find connections between stories that otherwise appear unrelated. For the same reason, I will keep protesting in my own way about consumerism, stupidity, religious bigotry, violation of human rights and last but not least the double standards of the ol' US of A.

Happy Valentine's Day ladies and gents. I hope you enjoy the night and ladies do not forget that in 4 weeks from today we have Steak and BJ Day.